Also in attendance: Jonah Martin, property owner/appellant
Marcia Moermond, Legislative Hearing Officer: This is a case where an application for
a fence permit was made and the application asked that a 6-foot privacy fence be
installed for the perimeter of the property and a gate at the 6-foot level also be
installed. City code allows a 7-foot high fence from the front plane of your house
backwards through the backyard. From the front plane of the house to the right of way,
though, you can only have a 4-foot fence. An aerial view of the property is on the
screen right now. the variance asks to allow a 6-foot privacy fence on the front plane.
The City building official can grant variances in limited circumstances, but not this
one. He could grant it if he found that the site's terrain or nuisance animal conditions
warrant a waiver of height restrictions, but none of those things apply here. At the
hearing we decided that a 6-foot fence would be allowed on the north side of the front
plane, since it abuts the neighboring property's backyard. For the south side of the
front plan and the street facing side, it would not make sense though. There's are two
major concerns. The first is more aesthetic, since it would create a fortress-like
appearance and affect neighborhood livability. This would affect all neighbors now and
moving forward. The other concern is about safety, and having safety personnel able to
get into the property if they need to. Hopping a 4-foot fence is easier than hopping a
6-foot one. To sum up, my 3 reasons for not granting the variance beyond just the
north side are: It doesn't meet the code requirements for a variance, it would have a
negative impact on the neighborhood, and it could have a negative safety impact. The
owner is present and has a set of arguments which I'm looking forward to him
presenting.
Jonah Martin: I'm trying to get the taller fence variance because I have two sons with
autism and they have what the doctors call eloping tendencies. I've already had a
couple of mishaps with them leaving the property. My children are in high school and
they're going to be with me for life. The reason why I need a taller fence is for safety,
not privacy. Their mental capabilities are very limited and they don't know the correct
ways of doing things, so they could potentially put themselves into harm's way, walking
out in the streets, potentially getting into a random stranger's car. We're kind of new to
the neighborhood. My father in law owned the house and passed away during the
pandemic. We moved here and we're trying to make this our permanent home. He
owned the house for last 30 years and we plan on living here full-time and we just want
to make it safe for our children.
Council President Jalali: Could you clarify your request?
Martin: I just hope to be able to put up a taller visual barrier for them, with no footholds
so they're not able to climb it. They have climbed the four foot ones and I have
pictures of a broken fence from that. Right now, we've got our eyes on them while
they're outside, but anything can happen.
Jalali: How old did you say your children were again?
Martin: One's about to be 18, the other 16.
Councilmember Noecker moved to close the public hearing. Approved 6-0.
Noecker: Just to recap, what is the height that is allowed, what is being requested, and
what is the variance that you're recommending?
The back plane allows 7 feet. The proposal is to install 6 feet all around; no variance is
required there. The front plane has a maximum of 4 feet, so a two-foot variance is
being requested. The fence type is also changing from chain link to privacy, which may
help deal with footholds. In Legislative Hearing, we discussed that a possible